Controlling the Cords

I am loving my new setup that I wrote about last time in Transforming My Home Office. However, the new furniture arrangement ended up exposing all of my computer cords. Since my home office is in the corner of my living room, I want to make sure it looks as attractive as possible.

Despite all of my tools and tricks, it looked pretty shabby. There were cables coming out of the back of the computer, as well as power cords plugged into a power strip. It was an unsightly mess.

Behind the desk – before

My first step was to hide the power strip, as well as the cables going into it. I went on-line to purchase the Bluelounge CableBox organizer, which I am using successfully at the other end of my living room. But another product caught my eye: the D-Line Cable Management Box. It was smaller, had rounded edges, and would allow cables to go in from the back instead of the sides. I knew that I would need a narrower power strip, so I purchased the same one that I bought when I set up my husband’s home office in the corner of our bedroom (see Creating A Home Office). It’s the Belkin 6-Outlet Power Strip Surge Protector. I chose it because it has a “flat rotating plug”, which means it could improve the look of the mess of cables under my desk.

Behind the computer – improved

The D-Line Cable Management Box (like the Bluelounge CableBox) has enough room inside to put bunched-up cables. So I not only was able to hide the power strip, I was also able to hide the excess cable lengths.

Another product that I used behind the desk was the Blue Key World Cable Clip Organizer. It is a small round disk that sticks onto your furniture and channels your thin cables. I used several of them on the back of my desk to guide the speaker wires down to the computer audio port and to the power strip. The cables are still visible, but at least they are in a straight line! I have another one on the side of my desk, which I use for my earphones cable when I’m on a Zoom meeting. It keeps the cable from hanging to the floor and gives me a little more slack to move around.

Now I was ready to tackle the cables under the desk. There are three thick cables that emanate from my monitor and go to the back of the computer and the power strip. I had previously purchased a white Cable Management Sleeve for some unsightly cords around my television, but when my VCR died earlier this year, I was able to take apart that setup. So I redeployed the sleeve to cover the monitor cables.

Under the desk

None of these solutions is perfect, but I was pleased that when I was done, it looked better than before I started. As long as we live in an electronic world, we will have to figure out how to hide cables.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.  Required fields are marked *